There’s been lots of buzz and talk the last two months tying Twitter’s rapid growth and attention to it becoming the first real threat to Google’s search hegemony. I’m not buying it. Not one bit. The quick reason to be skeptical about this is that people attach the Google killer/threat description onto lots of exciting and hyped platforms (hello WolframAlpha and Facebook) but not one has lived up to their killing expectations. Deeper, and more logical, reasons to discount Twitter’s threat are out there. Here are a few:
- Twitter has a fraction of users and visitors compared to Google. Twitter has approximately 14MM monthly unique visitors vs. an astounding 5.5B searches-per-month at Google.
- Twitter pulls only from a limited index of user-generated updates. Google’s index is deep at over 1 trillion pages and does not expire.
- Twitter covers only real time discussions, trending, ideas, links, and observations. Google indexes almost every site and idea on earth that is found online.
- Google can join and beat Twitter in the real-time search game at their own whim. Twitter’s search boosters’ have trumpeted their real-time tracking and trending information but Google’s recent unveiling of a time-based search refinement option that allows Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) based on recency and content type put a dent in that boosting. Moreover, Google should have the ability to reach directly into Twitter’s streams and pull out the same data and results Twitter itself finds in real time. Until Google implements this feature, the popular Firefox Greasemonkey Twitter Search Results on Google Add-on Script allows for real-time Twitter results to be included in all Google SERPs (as seen in the screen grab image above).
- Mathmatical algorithms beat humans. While social media is great for sharing ideas and opinions, I’m not sold on it being a substitute for complex proprietory algorithms that work hard to evade bias, gaming, and mob rule. Good luck with that in social media. There’s a reason all the top search engines cut out or down on the human submission and tweaking of site submissions over the last decade. Math is more trustworthy than humans.
- Google’s results often include sponsored links. Can’t find the right product, content, or topic answer in organic SERPs? It may be on the right-hand paid side. No such mechanism exists in Twitter and implementing something like this would negatively impact the social media culture and user experience.
None of this is to say that Twitter isn’t valuable. Not at all. Twitter has significant value as a communication platform, news breaker, and real-time trending engine. I use it daily — both for social media talking and trending and search benefits. It’s just that what Twitter has built doesn’t threaten Google’s search essence of pulling SERPs for people when they need information. How anyone thinks an engine that is of-the-moment (planet Twitter) can threaten an engine that is timeless information (Google universe) is beyond me. Does Google need work? Absolutely. Too many people still complain about not getting what they want out of their searches. Unfortunately for Twitter, what they’re offering doesn’t solve this problem. And until someone unveils a search engine that is heads-and-tails above Google both in terms of positive SERPs and in user experience, the folks in Mountain View don’t have anything to worry about.
[UPDATE 5/26: Louis Gray points out that Twitter's Search Engine is Very, Very Broken and it is straining to properly index its user base.]
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